The year that was

January 1, 2004 — 11.00am

There are no uneventful years in television. Launches and axings, hirings and firings, spectacular successes and dismal failures are as much a part of its character as annoying ads, footballers in drag and canned laughter.

Most years, at least one network experiences significant changes. In 2002, it was the long-stable Nine Network and 2003 kicked off with a trio of former Nine executives signing up with its rival and perpetual runner-up, the Seven Network. Nine’s former CEO, David Leckie, was appointed chief executive at Seven early in April. He joined programmer John Stephens and news chief Peter Meakin.

But the shake-up of the executive suites had little immediate impact, at least from the outside. Nine maintained its market-leader position, winning all 40 weeks of the ratings and increasing its audience share.

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In an industry where image is important, Seven’s took a beating. While its market share and overall ratings might not have substantially diminished, Seven had the air of a loser. New shows fell like dominoes: The Chat Room, Your Life on the Lawn, Meet My Folks, Greeks on the Roof .

Aggravating that already bleak situation was the loss of audience for its staple dramas, Blue Heelers and All Saints. Heelers fell victim to Nine’s flashy import, CSI: Miami, while All Saints is undergoing major surgery that will see it emerge radically altered this year. Seven built its post-AFL image on being the home of Australian drama. In 2003, that home was looking rickety.

Meanwhile Ten celebrated the success of Australian Idol to cries of "Go the ’fro", dealt with disappointment about the performance of its dramas (CrashBurn, White Collar Blue, After the Deluge) and helped usher into the popular lexicon the words "metrosexual" and "zhooshing" with its popular import, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy .

It was good to be gay on TV. While the US sitcom Will & Grace had long proffered images of gay men as out and proud, talkative and tasteful, the stereotype assumed happy new heights with the phenomenon of the Fab Five on Queer Eye and the casting of gay couple, affectionately dubbed "Gav and Waz", on Nine’s hit reality, real-estate and renovation show, The Block . Waz’s paint-peeling honk of a laugh became one of the indelible sounds of TV in 2003.

Another network to experience uncharacteristic ructions was the previously steady SBS. The installation of former TVNZ executive Shaun Brown as the head of television in January marked the start of contentious change for the multicultural broadcaster. In pursuit of a broader audience, the weekend schedule was revamped — hello, Iron Chef — and Brown dispensed with the long-standing SBS tradition of using presenters for movies and some documentary series. The flagship current-affairs program Insight also is being revamped.

The ABC also had an eventful year. Following the American initiatives that led to a Coalition of the Willing embarking on a war with Iraq, the ABC also found itself in the firing line. Communications Minister Richard Alston accused it of "anti-American bias" and alleged that the personal views of news and current affairs boss Max Uechtritz "were allowed to infect the ABC’s coverage of the Iraq conflict". An internal review of the minister’s complaints found most to have no substance.

Senator Alston’s attack followed an announcement by the ABC that it would axe its digital children’s channels, ABC Kids and FLY TV, after the federal government refused to grant the broadcaster’s application for an additional $250 million in funding over the next three years. Behind the News , a current affairs program for primary-school children, also fell victim to the cuts.

But it wasn’t all struggle for Aunty. Kath & Kim attracted the largest audience ever for an Australian sitcom, drawing in 2.15 million viewers, and the ABC increased audiences for Australian Story and The Bill .

Regrettably, the strategy that enabled Andrew Denton’s Enough Rope to carve a niche on Monday nights also was responsible for the disastrous shift for The Fat , which underwent timeslot change, identity crisis and eventually the loss of host Tony Squires, who will be seen on Seven this year.

2003 started out looking like it might be the Year of the Talk Show, with three new entrants: Enough Rope, Micallef Tonight and Seven’s Kumars clone, Greeks on the Roof . Only Denton’s show managed a full run.

The year also looked briefly like it might be the time for a sketch comedy revival with the premieres of Comedy Inc on Nine, The Big Bite on Seven and skitHouse on Ten. But the laughs didn’t last long and nor did the viewers.

Ratings winners

One of the few rays of light in Seven’s bleak year was the Rugby World Cup, which couldn’t have been scripted better than to play through to a nail-biting Australia v England final, decided in the final minutes of extra time. The game attracted an average national audience of just over 4 million, making it the most-watched football game in Australian TV history.

The Australian Idol showdown between Guy Sebastian and Shannon Noll attracted 3.25 million viewers, confirming Ten’s faith in the strength of this international franchise. Of the regular shows, though, the stand-out success was The Block . It debuted with a Sunday evening audience of over two million and built to a finale of 3.1 million.

Crime also paid as dramas about cops and criminal investigations drew increasing numbers of viewers. Although fans of The Bill continued to mutter disapprovingly about changes to the show, its audience was up by about 23,000. The CSI spin-off, CSI: Miami, became an immediate hit, while the original CSI saw its audience grow by 64,000. And far from saturating viewers with multiplying versions of Law & Order, Ten saw the Criminal Intent spin-off increase its audience by 107,000 viewers. Amid these crime series, Nine also launched the popular missingpersons drama, Without a Trace, and Ten turned Saturday into crime night, giving TV a new breed of detective with the endearing Monk .

Milestones: hatches, matches, dispatches & gongs

Birth of baby Eppony Rae to Kim and Brett Craig (Gina Riley and Peter Rowsthorn) on Kath & Kim . Regrettably, the father fails to arrive at the hospital for the birth after being unavoidably detained at the drive-thru window of a fast-food outlet.

New mum Rachel (Helen Baxendale) dies in the final episode of Cold Feet .

Seven’s talk show, The Chat Room , a Seven-Austereo co-production featuring several radio personalities, is axed after three weeks.

Doctors Alex (Claudia Karvan) and Rex (Vince Colosimo) tie the knot up on the roof before leaving for London on The Secret Life of Us .

A season of births and deaths in McLeod’s Daughters as Claire (Lisa Chappell) delivers baby Charlotte in July but a few months later dies in a car accident, on the night that her friend-turned lover Alex (Aaron Jeffrey) planned to propose.

Bye Bye Buffy. The Vampire Slayer stakes her final vampire as the genre busting series comes to an end.

Merrick and Rosso Unplugged debuts in late night Wednesday slot on Nine.

Ten announces that it won’t be doing a third season of the police drama White Collar Blue .

Seven pulls the plug on Always Greener in September, just two months after the announcement that it would proceed with a third season.

Nine had its own bout of indecision with the Monday night variety show

Micallef Tonight , which was launched in May and axed early in August. The previous month, Nine had announced that the show would run to the end of the year.

Seven launches a $2 million quiz show, Deal or No Deal

, to try to claw back some viewers on Sunday nights.

Rove McManus wins the Gold Logie; Network Ten, which a few years back only managed one nomination, rejoices at its Logies haul, including a pair of silvers for Peter O’Brien in White Collar Blue and Claudia Karvan

The Secret Life of Us .

The ABC’s legal-medical drama MDA scoops the pool at the AFI Awards, winning Best Drama, Best Actor (Shane Bourne) and Best Actress (Angie Milliken).

David Attenborough celebrates 50 years on TV.

Movement at the stations

Following stints at Seven, the ABC and SBS, Jana Wendt returns to Nine to host the Sunday show.

One of Peter Meakin’s first calls from his new office at Seven is to one-time Seven newsreader and recent Nine personality, Jennifer Keyte, to entice her back to Seven as a weekend news anchor. Keyte replaces Jennifer Adams.

After 15 years at Nine, Rob Gell is told that his presence in front of the weather maps is no longer required. Replacing Gell is Livinia Nixon.

Early in December, Nine’s Melbourne news director, John Sorell, steps down after 28 years.

Tony Squires signs with Seven, as does fellow

Fat panellist Rebecca Wilson.

Local drama

Geoffrey Atherden returned to the shenanigans of the Arcadia Waters council for a superb second season of Grass Roots. Andrew Knight’s After the Deluge offered a wrenching, witty and beautifully observed study of men in crisis.

Colin Friels made an impressive debut as whistleblower cop Jack Kempson in

BlackJack, the foundation of a telemovie series.

John Doyle’s heartfelt yet restrained miniseries Marking Time blended a Romeo and Juliet story set in a country town with a portrait of Australia in the new millennium.

Also notable were Ten’s ambitious but flawed relationship drama CrashBurn, the ABC’s reverent miniseries adaptation of Robert Drewe’s memoir, The Shark Net, and the telemovies

The Postcard Bandit and Temptation. Not usually a bastion of local drama, SBS made its mark with a diverse and impressive season of 50-minute productions, of which the highlights were Martha’s New Coat

and Roy Hollsdotter Live .

Local comedy

Not exactly a bumper crop here, but notable for the under-rated Dossa and Joe, co-written and directed by Caroline Aherne (

The Royle Family ) and starring Michael Caton and Anne Charleston as a sedentary suburban couple.

Also memorable were Shaun Micallef’s Welcher & Welcher

, the satirical efforts of the CNNNN team on the Chaser Non-Stop News Network, and the amiable, budget-priced Fat Cow Motel .

Documentaries

A Case for the Coroner: Affecting series revealed the often impressive work of the New South Wales coronial service.

Wildness: An illuminating look at the lives and work of Tasmanian wilderness photographers Olegas Truchanas and Peter Dombrovskis.

Love Letters from a War: Wain Fimeri’s moving portrait of a family at war located the love, strength, stoicism that united its generations.

Message from Moree: Inspiring documentary about how a wealthy white cotton farmer and an Aboriginal educator changed Moree from a racist, redneck town full of unemployed Aborigines into a productive community with respect and hope.

A Fine Body of Gentlemen:

Told the amazing story of Australia’s first cricket team — a group of Western District Aborigines.

Martin Bashir’s Living with Michael Jackson: The British reporter’s alarming profile of the American performer had viewers around the world chattering.

Food for thought

A varied menu. The effusive Kylie Kwong gave new zest with

Heart and Soul. The bouncy trio on The Best served up some interesting tucker in a race against time and each other. Jamie Oliver proved that life’s not all pukka as he scowled and swore through the compelling Jamie’s Kitchen

. The Iron Chef turned cooking into a sumo spectacle driven by shame and honour, and Rocco DiSpirito managed only one quick serve of The Restaurant before being trashed by Ten.

Pay pays off

According to figures released in August, nearly a quarter of Australian homes now subscribe to pay TV. About 14 per cent of programs watched in Australian homes are on pay, although in homes with pay TV, viewing is split about 50-50 between free and pay channels. It is heartening for a branch of the business that’s less than a decade old.

Lowlights

Survivor: Pearl Islands

contestant, the weasly Jon Dalton, who lied about the death of his grandmother to secure an advantage in the game.

Australian Idol’s designated nasty judge Ian “Dicko” Dickson tells talented Fijian-born singer Paulini Curuenavuli to “choose more appropriate clothing or shed a few pounds” if she wants to make it in the music biz.

Molly Meldrum’s Toasted and Roasted special which put the TV industry’s worst puerile and homophobic impulses into the spotlight.

Botched programming award

Ah, so many options. Seven’s contemptuous treatment of viewers of The Jury with a last-minute doubling up of the last two episodes, which meant that many viewers who’d set their VCRs missed the final hour. Nine continuing to stick The Sopranos and Six Feet Under in a late-night weeknight dead zone where they might start some time after Eddie has wound up Millionaire. SBS shifting its well-established Wednesday night Movie of the Week to Sundays, where it competes with the commercial stations’ biggest movies of the week. But, the winner is the ABC for its unforgivable mistreatment of The Fat, which was bounced around the schedule and suffered accordingly.

Actual moment of shock and awe

The first episode of The Shield

when the protagonist, muscle-bound crooked cop, Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis), guns down a fellow officer he knows is informing on his corrupt activities.